Fall for the Book Welcomes Yasutsune Hirashiki

September 20, 2017 – Bethesda, Maryland – Fall for the Book has confirmed it will host Yasutsune “Tony” Hirashiki at the 19th annual Fall for the Book Festival. The festival, which runs from October 11-14, 2017, will welcome a robust list of poets, historians, novelists, memoirists, children’s authors, YA writers and more at George Mason University and locations around Northern Virginia. This year, the festival is four days long and is partnering with the City of Fairfax’s Fall Festival on Saturday, October 14, to bring a day of literary and artistic events to audiences from throughout the region.

Author Hirashiki and his book editor, Terry Irving, will participate in a panel discussion and question and answer period about the combination of physical danger and editorial disagreements that marked coverage of the Vietnam War—now a half-century in the past. “On the Frontlines of the Television War,” Hirashiki’s award-winning memoir of ten years as a frontline film cameraman for ABC News in Saigon, has been rewritten for an English-speaking audience and released by Casemate Publishers in March 2017. They will be joined by reporter and documentarian Andrew Pearson who produced some of the more controversial news programs broadcast during the Vietnam War. The event, a class in George Mason University’s Intro to Documentary course will be open to the public on October 12th at 10:30 a.m. in the Johnson Center, Meeting Room F at 4400 University Dr., Fairfax, VA 22030. Afterward, there will be a chance to buy books and have them signed.

Yasutsune “Tony” Hirashiki was an ABC News cameraman from 1966 to 2006, covering wars, disasters, diplomacy, and political campaigns. In those four decades, he became legendary, consistently known as the guy you wanted next to you if you were walking into danger. During his time in Vietnam, he covered the Tet Offensive, the chaotic war in Cambodia, and the Fall of Saigon.

Andrew “Drew” Pearson began his television career as a cameraman and correspondent for NBC News before joining ABC. For his work on Vietnam, he won an Emmy and shared in Columbia-Dupont, Peabody and Polk prizes. Pearson has also produced several PBS series, including “Vietnam: A Television History.”

Terry Irving was a motorcycle courier for ABC News in the early 70’s but abandoned his beloved BMW R60/2 for a career as a TV news producer, earning 4 Emmy Awards for his work with programs like Nightline with Ted Koppel and his coverage of events from the Fall of the Berlin Wall to the Release of Nelson Mandela.

More information about Tony Hirashiki’s event and other authors can be found at fallforthebook.org.

Fall for the Book is Northern Virginia’s oldest and largest festival of literature and the arts. All events are free and open to the public thanks to the generous support of sponsors including the Fairfax County Public Library, George Mason University, the Fairfax Library Foundation, and the City of Fairfax.